Global warming may adversely affect the country’s agricultural production, by in terms of productivity and quality.
Wheat production in the country will drop by 4-5 million tonnes with rise of every single degree Celsius temperature during the growing season and climate change would result in increase in the population of pathogens and insects leading to loss of production, according a latest study by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).

The study titled, “Climate Change: Implications for Indian Agriculture,” is based on findings from ICAR’s nation-wide research facilities and agricultural universities. The study has gone into the sensitivity of crops, including horticulture crops and plantations, soils, water, fish and live stock to global climate changes.

Increasing temperature is likely to reduce fertiliser use efficiency. This will lead to increased fertiliser requirement for meeting future food production demands. But increased fertiliser use could also lead to higher emissions of green house gases, the study says.

Even very minor changes in temperature and rainfall have significantly impacted on the quality of fruits, vegetables, tea, coffee, aromatic and medical plants with resultant implications for prices and trade. The study has shown climate change would affect the quality of the premium variety basmati rice as well.

Increasing sea and river water temperature is likely to affect fish breeding, migration and harvests. Coral reefs in the Indian seas are predicted to decline from 2040. Drought, floods, tropical cyclones, heavy precipitation events, and heat waves are known to negatively impact agricultural production and farmer’s livelihood, the report said.

Increased heat stress
Climate change is likely to aggravate the heat stress in dairy animals, adversely affecting their productive and reproductive performance. Increasing glacier melt in Himalayas could affect availability of irrigation, especially in the Indo-Gangetic plains which in turn would have consequences on food production, it said.

The findings of the study would be discussed in the two-day agriculture universities vice chancellors conference which started here on Saturday, said sources.